Published Applications VS Server Desktop

[mdhstn]

Hi All,

Currently I am running a WAN Citrix network where users connect to a server desktop to run Apps such as Word, Mail, Excel and so on. Of course bandwidth is an issue as well as server speed. We are instead considering to use seperate Citrix Published Applications for each application. Has anyone done this in a WAN enviroment? What are the Pro's & Con's? Should I just stay with the current Dummy terminal setup? Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[Jallamann]

I am a big fan of published applications, for several reasons. It makes it easier to lock down the servers, and makes it easier to group servers in application groups. It's not a secret that not all applications run very well together on the same servers, so we have groups of servers running "garbage applications", to seperate them from applications they don't run well with. This makes the system less vulnerable, since a problem on one the "garbage" servers only have an impact on users of "garbage" applications. We also use Nfuse, and have integrated it onto our inhouse buildt Intranet, and it has been a real booster for the use of our Intranet. Best Regards
Morten Stårvik
morten.starvik@egroup.no
Egroup Online

 

[infojunkie]

I am in a similar position to mdhstn ie bandwidth critical. with Citrix XPa and desktop setups. Being able to separate apps sounds good but does anyone know of how much or if published apps use less bandwidth.

 

[enigma99]

Hi all.
I am in an environment that provides both the "Desktop" publish application and specific published applications (ie...word, outlook, sapgui, etc..) To answer infojunkies question about bandwidth differences the answer is "NO"..there is no difference between a full blown "Desktop" and only "word". The only benefit that we have seen is on the server side of things. It will cut down on the processes per session. for example..we noticed that when we published out the "Desktop" each session of "desktop" would get an explorer.exe and other processes. Well, whenever a user connects to the actual application "Word", they are not getting that which frees up a little bit of memory/processor resource. The bandwidth will still be the same old typical 10-20kbs per session.

Some of the cons that we have noticed about the individual app scheme is that if you want to open up word,excel and powerpoint at the same time using a roaming profile it will bomb out. It will give you a profile in use because one of the other apps is loading it. Also, depending on the load of the server...it might open up a different session per application.

Anyways...sry for the long post. Hope that helps.

 

[infojunkie]

Yes it does thanks.
Our issue at the moment is that we use a 1024/256 ADSL connection and our client did have a 128k ISDN connection and generally 4 users on citrix which was going great, now they have a 1500/384? ADSL connection and 8 to 10 users connected we are noticing a lot of slowdown. And as our outbound 256 is the smallest pipe in the circuit I'm worried that it is our sticking point.
We are currently investigating more bandwidth, but do these sizes and number of connections sound like a receipe for problems?